It’s hard to believe that just five short months ago, actress Ali Larter gave birth, as she is looking nothing short of fabulous these days after giving birth to son Theodore Hayes MacArthur on Dec. 20.

But while Larter’s race to get back in shape is nothing new for Hollywood moms, her confession that she loved to give into every indulgence while pregnant was something of a surprise.

“Stop eating? I eat everything!” she gushed when she was four months pregnant. “I bake myself strawberry shortcakes and then I wake up at three in the morning and I eat them.”

“I love it because so much of the time, I have to be careful,” Larter recalls. “I work out. I play certain roles where it’s important for me to look a certain way. But now it’s just freedom,” she said about being pregnant. “It’s like, bring on the Sprinkles cupcakes, pizza, pasta. I’m loving it!”

But while she insists she doesn’t diet these days, she did say she is watching what she puts in her mouth. And in addition to eating right, the actress is also finding time to workout to get back into her pre-baby form.

Ali Larter last month, showing off her new-mom glow. (AP)

Celebrity trainer, Gunnar Peterson who has worked with Jennifer Lopez and Halle Berry tells Fox411 that while it’s great to get back in shape, you have to give yourself time to do it the right way.

“Start slow and build yourself up,” he recommends. “You should use the time to enjoy your baby and work your way back into good health.”

And Larter is doing just that by bringing her baby along for the ride when she wants to sweat it out. ”[I] put him in a stroller and just walk for a couple of hours,” she explains. “It just really gives you the positive endorphins.”

Peterson, who doesn’t train Larter, loves this idea. “I think she’s absolutely right. You can add intervals to it which make it fun for the kid and beneficial to you.”

To spruce up the walk even more, he says, you can “put a couple of bands or weights in the stroller so when they go to sleep you can stand right there and do weights while you watch the baby.”

The “Resident Evil” star also switches up her routine when possible. “I’m doing pilates a couple days a week,” says the new mom.

May 8: Ali Larter on her first Mother's Day as a mom. (X17online.com)

“Pilates is good cause it’s a form of resistance training and after a certain age everyone benefits from that,” says Peterson. “Resistance training can be bands, body weight, pilates – something that adds an external load to the body. It’s proven to increase lean mass and muscle to fat ratio.”

So by doing pilates Larter is “metabolically burning calories at a higher rate” he says.

Larter also focuses on cardio “trying to hike or run a couple days a week,” she says. And while ”benefits from running are huge,” according to Peterson, he warns new moms to “check with your doctor to make sure they green light that kind of high impact, high intensity workout.”

Peterson says it’s important for new moms not to feel like they have to hit the ground running. Start doing a walk/run routine.

“Try to be realistic about it,” Peterson says. “Remember that your body went through what it went through for 40-plus weeks, so don’t try to get back right away.”

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